THE RELIGION OF NATUEE 



the parents, whose devotion to their young was 

 so beautiful at first because it was good for the 

 race that the young should be reared now en- 

 gage in cruel conflict with them and with each 

 other because it is good for the race that each 

 robin should be sole owner of a hunting ground 

 in winter. 



From nature's point of view the fierce com- 

 bats between parents and children are just as 

 touching and beautiful as their previous relations 

 appeared to be; it is only from the human point 

 of view (because man is a gregarious animal, 

 thriving best by the co-operation of numbers of 

 his kind in summer and winter alike) that the 

 family fights appear " unnatural." We do not 

 understand how, after tenderly cherishing chil- 

 dren, it is possible to wish to kill them soon after, 

 if we can, as a matter of course. Get rid, how- 

 ever, of the idea that other animals have human 

 " feelings," and nothing in nature seems unnatu- 

 ral, nor offers any stumbling-block to religion 

 properly understood. 



By the dry light thus thrown on nature at 

 large we easily comprehend to take another in- 

 stance the strange perversion (as it otherwise 

 would seem to us), of parental instinct which im- 

 pels birds upon whom a cuckoo has foisted an egg 

 to show no concern whatever for their own chil- 



[48] 



